Some 4.92 million laid-off workers from Chinese state-owned enterprises had been re-employed in 1999, a senior official from the State Commission of Economy and Trade in Beijing on January 25.

He told a press conference this morning that China closed down 435 large and medium-sized state-owned enterprises that were losing money last year.

By the end of 1999, the country had closed down 31,000 small coal mines, 70 small oil refineries and 5,600 small petroleum plants.

It had also reduced the cotton yarn production capacity by 9.06 million spindles and cut the steel production capacity by 13 million tons and the rolling steel production capacity by 15 million tons.

In the same year, China had slashed the cement production capacity by 40 million tons, cut the glass production capacity by 15 million cartons and reduced the capacity of coal-fired electricity generation by 5.74 million kilowatt.